Innocent police officers ambushed and murdered in the line of duty.

On July 17, three police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana were murdered by 29-year-old, Gavin Long of Kansas City, Missouri.

The deadly shooting took place around 9 a.m. CT; in the city of about 230,000 people, already tense after a high profile police shooting of an African-American man, Alton Sterling, on July 5 at a gas station.

On Sunday, police received a call of a “suspicious person walking down Airline Highway with an assault rifle.” This highway is a heavily traveled road in the city and this call was very serious for the officers. When the police officers arrived to the scene of the suspicious person, the shooting started. The shooter was wearing all black with a mask on.

Long, who was born on July 17,1987 was the man who gunned down officers before he was killed in a gun battle with police responding to the shootings. Long turned 29 and decided to travel from Kansas City to Baton Rouge to kill police. Two Baton Rouge police officers, ages 41 and 49, died, said Police Chief Carl Dabadie. The gunman also killed a 45-year-old sheriff’s deputy and critically wounded a 41-year-old deputy who is “fighting for his life,” said East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Sid Gautreaux. Another wounded deputy and police officer have non-life-threatening wounds.

The press first thought that there may be multiple gunmen targeting police but later the police said Long was a thought to be a lone gunman but the police discovered he traveled to Baton Rouge with other people. Long traveled to Dallas in early July, where five police officers were ambushed and killed by an angry African American man looking to kill white cops. Police found that Long’s Facebook had a lot of hate and anti-law enforcement posts. After Long was killed, police found out that he was a former Marine.

President Barack Obama, on Sunday, condemned the killings and all attacks on law enforcement. “We as a nation have to be loud and clear that nothing justifies violence against law enforcement,” Obama said, speaking from the White House press briefing room. “Attacks on police are an attack on all of us and the rule of law that makes society possible.” In a written statement earlier in the day, Obama called the Baton Rouge shootings a “cowardly and reprehensible assault.”

These innocent officers are putting their lives on the line everyday to protect their citizens, friends, and family, hoping to come home to see their children or spouse. These men and women bravely run to danger to save others. Why are people killing police so much? This is not going to solve the problems the US faces. It will only make the situations worse. If people want to make a change in the government or the police departments, they should go make a positive change in their community. Instead of violence people should make a change, start a movement, speak your mind, but all in a positive and non-violent way. Violence is not the answer and will never be.